Lexus is about to release its first ever ground-up EV. It's the 2023 Lexus RZ and Paul Maric has been behind the wheel. Our test car is a one off hand built prototype that has its own steer-by-wire system in the form of a yoke!
More Lexus content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/lexus
More Lexus RZ content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/lexus/rz
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 0:52
Interior 4:16
Charging 9:17
On the road 9:48
Verdict 15:03
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#lexus #rz #review
More Lexus content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/lexus
More Lexus RZ content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/lexus/rz
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 0:52
Interior 4:16
Charging 9:17
On the road 9:48
Verdict 15:03
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#lexus #rz #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul, and this is a one-off hand-built prototype of the new Lexus RZ.
00:07 It is Lexus's first ground-up EV on its own EV bespoke platform, and today we're in a
00:13 top-secret hangar because we get to check it out and we also get to drive it as well.
00:17 Now I don't have a massive amount of information, but I will give you everything that I can.
00:21 So today will be a bit of a preview of the car and also an indication of how it drives
00:25 with the yoke steering wheel, which I'm very interested to see.
00:29 We do know that this is going to be launched in 2023 and we're expecting it in Australia
00:33 in mid-2023.
00:34 I'll run you through all the other details in a second.
00:36 Now if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this video, you can use the time
00:39 codes on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:44 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon so
00:47 you can find out every single time we drive a car that's been hand-built.
00:52 Now let's talk about the design, and before I start with that, it is bucketing down outside,
00:57 Murphy's Law.
00:58 It actually looks way cooler in the sunlight, so we'll try and make do with what we have
01:02 here.
01:03 So this paint colour is interesting.
01:04 So you've got the actual paint colour itself, but then it's multi-tone and this is actually
01:08 going to be available when the car goes on sale, and I think it looks so cool because
01:12 you're basically just making this cut a different line through traffic.
01:15 It just really stands out nicely.
01:17 So down the bottom here, you'll notice like with a lot of other EVs on the market, there
01:20 is no sort of grill because you do have to cool motors and also the battery system, but
01:26 typically that's all done down low here.
01:28 So the whole concept of this top section is to mimic a grill that you would find on an
01:32 internal combustion car, but here, obviously they don't need to do anything, but you still
01:36 need it to have a face on it.
01:37 So that's why that's all blanked out, and then you have these 3D elements down the side
01:41 there as well.
01:42 It's just a really sort of nice and imposing looking design.
01:45 In here you have a set of LED headlights with an LED daytime running light, and over here
01:50 the Lexus logo with camera built into there and then parking sensors along the front.
01:54 Come around to the side, I'll show you what these wheels look like.
01:57 So again, pre-production, this might not be what the final design looks like, but 20-inch
02:01 alloy wheels, machined finish on the outside and then a piano black finish on the inside
02:05 there.
02:06 Then you have this piano black stuff around the wheel arches.
02:08 So you know that I'm not a fan of piano black, but it actually doesn't look too bad here
02:12 when it is integrated into that wheel design.
02:14 So I think that that kind of looks okay, and then it continues down the side of the car
02:18 as well.
02:19 This is a fairly big SUV despite sort of appearances.
02:22 Now I'll run you through charging in a second before we go for a drive, but let's whip around
02:26 the side of the car.
02:27 Have a look at this profile.
02:28 So that black continues from the bonnet all the way along the top.
02:31 It has a full glass roof and similar to the iX, it has a function that allows it to change
02:36 between transparent and translucent with a push of a button.
02:39 I love that that is making its way back into cars.
02:41 We saw that on Maybachs ages ago and it's now sort of becoming trendy again, which I
02:46 kind of like.
02:47 The door handles are interesting, so you don't actually have anything that you pull.
02:50 There is just a little button behind there and you just give that a light tap and then
02:54 it unlocks the door for you to then open and close as you go.
02:58 Around the back here, privacy glass and that sort of tapers off towards the rear.
03:01 Now this section here is interesting as well, so there's little spoilers on the top edge
03:05 of that boot lip and the whole point of that is to give you better stability with crosswinds.
03:10 I just love that they think about this stuff as well.
03:13 So what we're going to do now is spin the car around and then we'll have a proper look
03:17 at the back and also the boot.
03:18 So let's check out the back as the rain starts properly falling down.
03:22 You've got Lexus individual lettering here.
03:24 I think we saw that on the LX that we tested recently as well.
03:26 I think it looks pretty cool.
03:27 It sort of just gives this whole rear end just a bit more width to it, especially when
03:31 you look at things like this LED light that stretches all the way around the back there.
03:35 And then you have the full LED taillights as well.
03:38 Then the badges down here, so RZ450E, Direct 4.
03:42 Direct 4 is the designation for the all-wheel drive system, so they'll probably end up doing
03:46 a two-wheel drive as well eventually, but that's what that stands for.
03:49 And then down the bottom here you've got this whole piano black section, so I'll be interested
03:52 to see how well that dates.
03:54 But in terms of just the design, I think this looks sensational.
03:57 So I like the front, but the back I think to me is where this looks the best.
04:01 So this is shared with Toyota's EV on the same platform, the e-TNGA platform, and I
04:05 think this is definitely the better looking vehicle of the two.
04:09 So let me know in the comments section below, do you like the look of this or do you prefer
04:12 the Toyota or are you going to buy something else altogether?
04:15 Let me know what you reckon down there.
04:16 So we are inside the RZ.
04:19 Look at that, I'm going to get to that in just a second, but we'll start off with the
04:22 key.
04:23 This is what it looks like.
04:24 So you've got lock, unlock, boot, a little bit of metal garnish around the side, and
04:28 then Lexus logo on the back there.
04:30 And it's a proximity sensing key, got the door handles that I showed you earlier, and
04:33 then the push buttons start up the top here.
04:36 This is cool because, I don't know, I've been very outspoken about the Tesla yoke.
04:40 I think it looks absolutely stupid and not very functional.
04:43 I saw, I think it was an Edmunds video where they were test driving it and it was just
04:46 all over the place.
04:47 This on the other hand, yes, it's a yoke, but it has variable steering ratio, which
04:52 means that while you're out on the road, it's about one fifth of the turning radius that
04:56 you would have in a typical car.
04:58 So it means when you do put a little bit of input in, it's actually quite a lot of steering
05:01 input and you're never at a point where you need to cross over.
05:05 That's where something like this actually makes sense.
05:06 And in addition to that, this is actually a steer-by-wire system.
05:09 There is no physical mechanical connection between this yoke here and the wheels.
05:14 So it's all electronic, which I reckon is just mind-blowing stuff.
05:17 What they've also done is integrated all of your driving functions onto here as well.
05:21 You've got your indicator on the side here, wipers over here, lights and more wiper settings
05:25 there.
05:26 It is all just in this little cluster, which I think is pretty cool.
05:28 So keen to take this for a bit of a spin and see exactly what this feels like behind the
05:32 wheel because this is something brand new to motoring, so that's pretty cool.
05:35 In terms of the rest of the interior here, we're going to keep this a little condensed
05:39 because this is a pre-production car.
05:40 When we do finally get the chance to drive this, I'll take you through all of the finer
05:43 details, but this will actually look familiar if you've seen some of our other Lexus reviews.
05:48 It's a 14-inch screen and behind the climate controls there, you actually have LCDs there
05:53 as well and it's a really nice high-resolution display.
05:56 It comes with wireless smartphone mirroring in the form of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
06:00 I'll show you what they look like in the NX that we drove recently.
06:02 It'll look very similar to this.
06:04 And there's a screen here ahead of the driver as well.
06:06 I wish this screen was a bit bigger.
06:08 It kind of has black sections off to the side, which I think cheapens the look a little bit,
06:12 given you've got the yoke here that gives you better visibility of it.
06:15 It would have been nicer to see just a little bit, a bit more clarity just there.
06:18 Down the centre here, you've got this brushed sort of wood look and a little bit of piano
06:23 black.
06:24 There's also a new thing to Lexus, it's an electronic shifter, so you don't actually
06:28 have a physical shifter for the car.
06:30 This is an electronic system and in addition to that, this entire interior is vegan, which
06:35 is pretty impressive.
06:36 Now, let's talk about some of the other cool things around the cabin here and again, this
06:39 is my first time in this car, so I'm just pointing out everything that I see.
06:42 USB-C connections down the bottom here.
06:45 The roof, I mentioned earlier, that is very similar to the iX and some of the other cool
06:49 cars that we've driven because you press that button and immediately it goes dark.
06:53 One more press and it lights up again, which I reckon is a pretty nice setup.
06:57 Here on the door here, you have an LED light that projects an image onto the suede and
07:02 on that image you actually have, I guess, ambient lighting, but just a very different
07:06 setup to what it normally looks like.
07:08 You can run your hands across that and you can see it projected onto your hand there
07:11 as well.
07:12 So, I reckon it's a pretty nice looking interior and yeah, I'm keen to see what this feels
07:17 like.
07:18 So, let's jump in the second row, see how much room there is and then most importantly,
07:21 go for a drive.
07:22 Okay, so, second row of the RZ.
07:26 It's actually really roomy.
07:27 So, I've got stacks of knee room.
07:29 Headroom is excellent too, despite having this panoramic roof.
07:32 They also say that you can actually get a fabric cover for this as well if you don't
07:35 like the glass.
07:36 The only thing I don't like here is the toe room.
07:39 It's sort of really compromised.
07:40 The floor sits quite high, so my knees feel like they're sitting quite high.
07:43 It's like this in my Model 3 and it was a little uncomfortable on longer distance drives.
07:48 You do have map pockets in the back of the seats here, USB-C outlets, heated seats, plus
07:52 an actual AC outlet to 150 watts.
07:54 So, I don't know if this car will get vehicle to load, but 150 watts is okay, but not amazing.
07:59 Kia REV6, Ioniq 5, they do 3.6 kilowatts, so it would be nice to see a little bit more
08:04 there.
08:05 Centre armrest here with two cup holders.
08:07 Yeah, it's actually a nice place to be seated.
08:09 I don't mind this at all.
08:10 Now, let's sort cargo.
08:11 So, this is my first time actually having a proper look at this car, so I'm hoping they've
08:14 actually integrated some storage beneath the cargo floor.
08:17 We don't have any numbers in terms of cargo storage, but this appears to actually be pretty
08:22 decent in terms of what you can load into there.
08:25 If we have a look beneath the cargo floor, it's actually really impressive.
08:28 So, you have this lower tier down here, and it sort of tucks into there.
08:33 When you think about some of the EVs in this segment, you're looking at things like Ioniq
08:36 5, EV6, this is actually a far better way to package this, because if you have a dedicated
08:41 EV platform, you may as well work around your motors and other things that you do have beneath
08:45 that cargo floor.
08:47 The way they've done this actually works really well, because you do have storage beneath
08:50 there which you don't get in EV6 and Ioniq 5 as well.
08:53 Over on the sides, you have hooks and then a 12-volt outlet off to the side here as well.
08:59 So, pretty impressive that.
09:00 And it opens tall enough for me to stand under, which is good.
09:04 If you do want to expand the space, you can drop that second row out of the way, and let's
09:08 see if that folds flat.
09:10 Yeah, it kind of does.
09:11 It's actually not a bad load space there.
09:13 You can kind of just cram in whatever you need to.
09:15 So, pretty impressive that.
09:17 Now, before we go for a spin, I want to run you through the electric side of things.
09:20 Now, like I said, pre-production, so that's not meant to exist.
09:25 This has both AC and DC charging.
09:27 AC comes in the form of 11 kilowatt single phase and three phase, and DC comes in the
09:32 form of 150 kilowatt on a CCS Type 2 plug.
09:35 No more Chateaumaux, which is definitely good news.
09:38 In terms of the battery itself, 71.4 kilowatt hours and a driving range of around 450 kilometres
09:46 on the combined cycle.
09:47 Okay, so we have hit the road in this hand-built prototype.
09:50 I'm a little bit nervous, if I'm honest, because it is bucketing down outside, and I've been
09:55 told to keep it safe and gentle.
09:59 So first things first, we're on this big sort of skid pad area.
10:03 This is so weird.
10:05 So I'm only having to do a little bit of steering input here, and that's full lock right there.
10:10 My hands never have to cross over each other.
10:12 So it's really fascinating that variable ratio steering setup means that you don't ever have
10:19 to do the stuff that you would normally have to do in a car, which I find, it'll take me
10:23 a little while to get used to it, but I think it's pretty cool nevertheless.
10:26 It's also cool having all of these controls here on the steering wheel and not having
10:29 to think too much as you drive.
10:31 It's all just happening.
10:32 So paddle shifters up the top here to adjust your regen mode, and it looks like there's
10:37 four different regen modes as I cycle through that.
10:40 It doesn't feel like there's any single pedal driving stuff, so it is all just sort of old
10:46 school EV setup.
10:47 This is so weird.
10:48 I'm just trying to get used to it.
10:49 Okay, now let me tell you the headline act here.
10:52 So this is the all-wheel drive version.
10:53 They're probably going to do other versions of the RZ as well, but the all-wheel drive
10:57 version has a motor on the front, motor on the rear, and a combined output of 230 kilowatts
11:02 of power, and that's 150 kilowatts at the front and 80 kilowatts at the rear.
11:07 There's obviously no mechanical connection between the front and the rear.
11:09 It's all just electronic, and that is Lexus's Direct4 system, right?
11:14 So they're able to electronically control where that torque is going, and that can basically
11:18 do anywhere from 100 to 0, 0 to 100.
11:21 Just depends what the situation is, the car can manage to handle that.
11:25 Now, 0 to 100 time is around five and a half seconds according to Lexus, and we've got
11:30 a little straight up the back here.
11:31 So what I'm going to do is put this into sport mode.
11:34 You've got normal, sport, eco, range, and custom.
11:36 I'll put it onto sport mode.
11:39 I'm just going to pin the throttle, and we'll see how quick it is up against our stopwatch.
11:43 So here we go.
11:44 You ready, Sean?
11:45 Okay.
11:46 Gee, that's not bad.
11:48 Wheel slip off the line there, traction control light flashing.
11:50 Away it goes, and there's 100 k's an hour.
12:00 Probably not bad.
12:01 It actually just feels a lot quicker than I thought it would.
12:03 They're also saying as well with that all-wheel drive system, they're able to make it pitch
12:07 less when you're accelerating, and you do kind of feel that.
12:10 It doesn't feel like it takes off towards the sky.
12:12 In addition to that as well, this car has adaptive damping.
12:15 That may not be standard across the range, but it is sort of standard here.
12:19 This steering is very interesting.
12:23 Very interesting.
12:24 So the feedback through the wheel is odd, because typically with a normal car with a
12:29 normal steering rack, you would feel everything coming through the wheel, whereas here there
12:32 is no mechanical connection.
12:33 But they do have these torque applicators on the steering to actually give you the feedback
12:39 you need to have when you're driving the car.
12:42 So it's a little hard to explain, because I can feel the bumps in the road through the
12:47 seat, but I can't feel them through the wheel.
12:49 But you do feel some inputs as you turn the wheel.
12:52 Yeah, I know, I'm making absolutely no sense at the moment, but that is what I'm feeling.
13:00 It is so wet out here, and I do not want to crash their hand-built prototype.
13:04 It's not going to go too crazy, but we've got a hairpin around the back here, so let's
13:10 line that up and just see what it feels like.
13:13 Oh my god, it is so wet.
13:16 Okay, here's our hairpin.
13:19 Punt it around here.
13:25 Yeah, the steering is interesting, because if you, especially when it's wet, if you throw
13:32 lock on it, you're basically doing what you would do in a normal car, where you throw
13:35 like two turns of lock.
13:37 It's going to understeer, of course, and just back there I kind of threw it in, and it,
13:40 oh, it tucked in.
13:42 It's, yeah, it's a really strange sensation, but I'm kind of liking it.
13:46 And I can see why this wouldn't really work that well in Tesla's application, where it's
13:50 all mechanical, because you actually then have to go hand over hand, and it doesn't
13:55 really work that well.
13:56 So, all right, next up, we have a little slalom set up here, and we'll punt this through there
14:01 and see what it feels like with slightly faster driving.
14:04 Okay, slalom time.
14:06 Let's see what it's like around our tight slalom.
14:08 I've left it in sport mode.
14:09 Hopefully I don't knock any cones over.
14:13 Gee, this has so much traction.
14:17 Yeah, I'm actually interested with the steering.
14:20 It kind of, it has feedback, even though there is no mechanical feedback.
14:26 So I don't know.
14:29 It is just doing my head in how this works, and I think it actually works pretty well.
14:33 Now, just in terms of the rest of the car and the way that it sort of looks and feels
14:36 here behind the wheel, this steering wheel being cut down at the top actually gives you
14:40 good visibility through the front of the car.
14:42 So you don't actually have that big mass up the top there that blocks off your display
14:46 here.
14:47 You can actually see down the front there, and it means that you are going to have a
14:50 better sort of driving position in that sense.
14:53 And the wheel sits nicely in the hand too and is pretty easy to adjust.
14:57 Wing mirrors are nice and big and visibility down the front of the car is good.
15:00 Visibility out the back is good as well.
15:01 So look, this has been a first drive for us, and I am keen to see what this is like when
15:08 they do have the final production version of this car, because to me this feels sort
15:13 of pretty production ready.
15:14 I know they're going to iron out some of those kinks, but I'll be keen to see what it is
15:18 like when we do finally get a production version on Australian roads.
15:21 So let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.
15:23 Are you excited for the Lexus RZ and it finally coming to Australia?
15:28 Let me know what you think.
15:29 I am keen for your feedback.
15:30 If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.
15:33 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon, because
15:37 I want to get out of the rain.
15:38 Until next time, take it easy.